The Sand Trap (12 page)

Rebecca looked at her and saw, although she
could not put her finger on it, that there was something different.
Melanie was always fairly expressionless. Some said she was just a
cold fish, although Rebecca knew differently. But this morning her
expression was more than either resolute or cold. Rebecca shrugged
it off and grabbed her coffee.

“Ok. Let’s go!”

Melanie said nothing as they drove to the
Cedar Grove Country Club. This was not unusual behaviour for
Melanie before she went on the golf course and Rebecca did not push
her to conversation. She had her own thoughts to get lost in and
soon they pulled into the parking lot and the bag drop area.

Coach was waiting by the bag rack.

“You guys like to cut it fine don’t you, “he
exclaimed with an exasperated laugh. He was a pleasant person, but
he seemed in a particularly good mood this morning. It was a
beautiful sunny southern California fall day. He was at one of the
U.S. top 10 rated golf courses. But most importantly, as the coach
of a golf team from a podunk college from a podunk city in a podunk
state, he had the two top seeded golfers in the national
tournament. With any kind of performance by these two golfers his
move up to higher levels would be assured, maybe even a Pac 10 or
Ivy League job.

Rebecca picked up Melanie’s bag. She had
been able to convince Melanie that a new bag would not hurt her
golf game and the new one was leather with the Clapshorn big horn
sheep mascot embroidered on the front. It was certainly heavier
than Melanie’s old canvas bag, but Rebecca did not mind. Other than
the putter, the clubs in her bag were the one’s she had brought
from the Folly. Rebecca had the pro shop in Billings make Melanie a
new putter that was the same short length as her old one, two feet,
but with a good grip and a modern head. It did improve her putting,
especially on the short ones, so in a mock solemn ceremony, Rebecca
and Melanie pretended to say some ancient Celtic prayers as they
chucked the old one in a dumpster behind the clubhouse.

“You tee off in ten minutes on number four,”
Coach informed them. “You’ll be playing with a couple of girls from
back East, Massachusetts and North Carolina."

Both the practice day and the competition
were set up so the women had the morning on the course and the men
the afternoon. Sixty women teed off on this practice day in a
shotgun start at 8 am and they had five hours to complete the
eighteen holes before the men had their shotgun start at 1:30.
Another sixty men and woman had gone the day before so that all 240
golfers had a chance at a practice session before the
competition.

“I’ll be going with you to help you with
course management issues.”

Melanie said nothing in response as she took
off at a crisp, but to Rebecca it seemed a somehow awkward pace
towards the fourth hole. Rebecca picked up her bag and Coach
followed as Rebecca and Coach gave each other a questioning look
and just shrugged. Melanie was known to behave oddly on occasion.
It soon became clear to both Coach and Rebecca that this was not
just any old odd occasion. She was abruptly polite with the other
players, simply giving single or two word responses to anything.
For the whole morning no one heard more than “good shot”, “nice
putt” or “thanks” when someone said something nice to her. There
was no conversation. There was no bantering or laughter and when
Rebecca commented that the rough was long this morning, or the
greens cut shorter than normal, she just nodded her head and
carried on.

But she did two things, other than her
strange gait that struck Rebecca as very odd at the time.

Firstly, after every tee shot she walked
back to the where the men would tee off, twenty to forty yards
further back from the women’s tee and stood and looked for a
moment. Secondly, and only Rebecca really noticed this one, each
shot to the green seemed to end up on the hardest part of the
green. If there was a spot on the green where the putt required a
shot over two swales and three dips, that’s where Melanie’s ball
landed. At least twice Melanie hit her ball into pit bunkers that
left impossible shots to the green.

Her game was so unusual that at the end of
the round Rebecca heard one of the other golfers say to her own
coach ”She’s not such a hot golfer.” But Rebecca knew what the
golfer did not. Melanie had hit those shots on purpose and while
she had not totally figured it out, she soon learned there was
purpose in Melanie’s action.

At the end of the practice round the girls
and coaches shook hands and Coach, Melanie and Rebecca walked to
the clubhouse where lunch was waiting for the women as the men
finished lunch and were heading out to the course. Rebecca was
still puzzling over Melanie’s behaviour on the course when they met
Chad, Burt and the caddies Henry and Frank coming out the clubhouse
door.

“Well hello ladies, “Chad warmly hailed.
“Did you birdies leave any birdies out there for us?”

There was only a split second delay before
Melanie walked over to Chad and to his surprise and even greater to
Rebecca’s, she laughed, put her arms around his neck and gave him a
little peck. “I’ll always leave some goodies for you, Chad.” And
with a sideways walk and a coquettish smile as she glanced back,
Melanie went into the clubhouse to change for lunch.

Rebecca shuffled after her, still carrying
her clubs and caught up to her in the hallway and grabbed her
arm.

“Ok girl. What the fuck was that? First the
oddest eighteen holes I have ever seen you play and then that with
Chad? Is there something I don’t know?”

Melanie stopped and paused for a moment
before she turned around. When she was facing Rebecca, she thought
for a moment that Melanie had tears in her eyes. But it was only
for a second as Melanie looked at her in the eye as straight and as
resolute as she had ever done before.

“I want to play on the men’s side in the
tournament.”

“What did you say?”

Melanie repeated herself very quietly and
very firmly. “I want to play on the men’s side.”

“You can't. In case you haven’t noticed
recently. You actually are a woman.”

Some other golfers passed them in the hall
and glanced over at Rebecca’s raised voice. Rebecca dropped the
clubs and pulled Melanie into a closet in the hallway and closed
the door.

“Ok. What's this all about?”

Melanie was even more resolute.

“I will play on the men’s side and you will
make it happen.”

Rebecca was getting exasperated.

“How the fuck can I do that? You don’t
qualify to play!”

“Yes I do. All men’s competitions in the
NCGA are open to women. My second place in the state men’s match
play immediately qualifies me for the NCGA men’s side.”

Rebecca paused and thought for a moment.
Melanie was right on both counts. She was eligible. But she still
did not know why Melanie wanted to do this.

“But why Melanie?” she implored. “You are a
shoe in to be the women's national NCGA champion. That gives you
automatic qualifying for the U.S. Women's amateur, the Open and so
many other things, maybe a scholarship to an Ivy League university?
For God’s sake why would you give that up?”

“I want to win the men’s and I want you to
help."

“But Coach would never agree to this and he
would have to get the other coaches to agree and they would never
agree to a woman joining the men’s side.”

Melanie had thought this out over a long and
sleepless night.

“Rebecca …” she paused and looked Rebecca
directly in the eye. “I think you can convince Coach to do
this.”

Perhaps for the first time in their
relationship, Melanie saw Rebecca turn red in the face from
embarrassment. “What about the other coaches?”

“If Coach takes it to them they will
certainly object. But all he has to do is point out the public
relations affect of refusing to let a qualified woman play against
the men. Cynics are claiming the new bylaw to allow woman to play
in men’s athletics was just a sop to the feminists on campus and
did not mean anything. If they turned me down it would make them
look foolish and give the equal rights people a big piece of
ammunition," Melanie explained. “And anyhow, none of them would
think a woman could beat their men, so by letting me in they would
think they are killing two birds with one stone, showing that the
bylaw does mean something and showing that women don’t belong in
men’s golf. They’ll approve it.”

Rebecca was stunned. At the demand Melanie
had made. At her understanding of the relationship between her and
Coach. At how she had so thoroughly thought this through. If either
of the two of them were more inclined to social activism it was
Rebecca. She was taken totally unaware of this sudden interest of
Melanie’s in women’s equality. She knew Melanie was right. They
would let her play. But she knew something else. She knew that
Melanie could actually win.

Rebecca smiled, nodded her head in an
all-knowing manner and told Melanie to go have lunch while she went
and made the case to Coach. The look on Melanie’s face told her
there was no turning back for either of them. It was 1978 and they
were soon to make history in the world of U.S. collegiate
sports.

Things went much as Melanie had predicted.
Rebecca had little difficulty with Coach. Even in 1978, affairs
between coaches and students were frowned upon. But it was more
than that. After a short rant Coach saw the same thing that Rebecca
had seen. This was an opportunity far beyond just Melanie and he
enthusiastically took the proposal to a meeting of all coaches that
evening. While the decision belonged to the NCGA governing body,
seven coaches elected each year by the larger coaching group, they
would want to hear the views of the coaches with players in the
tournament. As with Rebecca and Coach, the first reaction was from
“This is a joke right?” to “She isn’t eligible” to “She won’t play
any of my men that’s for sure” to even personal comments “I’ve
heard that she’s a real freak. Do we want her to be the poster girl
for golf in this country?” to “She’s a Canadian for Chris’
sake.”

In the final analysis they really had to
agree to let her play. There was room on the draw. The Alaskan
men’s team had been snowed in and had to withdraw at the last
moment. She was eligible. And all understood the politics of the
situation.

Coach found it interesting that the dozen or
so women’s coaches were the strongest opponents to the idea. They
actually caucused during the discussion and came out as a group
against allowing Melanie to play, although he never heard their
arguments. The most common argument to let her play was simply that
it was no big deal since she wouldn’t get past the first round
anyhow. There would be some quick media interest when it was
announced that she would play and it would all die down the second
day and they could get on with the next three days of the
tournament.

The NCGA national tournament was an unusual
format. Most tournaments were either some sort of match play or
some sort of medal play. This tournament was unusual in that it was
a mix of both. The goal of the tournament was not team play like
most collegiate tournaments, but to crown the national collegiate
individual champions. With over a hundred golfers in each of the
men’s and women’s side, …two were allowed from each state, straight
match play elimination would have taken too long. So the first day
of the competition was medal play, and the top sixteen men and top
sixteen women moved onto a pure match play format to get to the
‘last golfer standing’ as one reporter put it. Another called it
‘October madness’, a reference to basketball’s ‘March madness’. All
other golfers moved on to the consolation round. Most of the
coaches and the governing body agreed that Melanie would not likely
make it past the first round and would not be one of the sixteen
“men” vying for the national championship. As Melanie predicted,
they figured this would show both that the bylaw has meaning and no
purpose.

With a show of hands at the Board meeting of
the NCGA, Melanie McDougal became the first Clapshorn woman golfer
to make it to the NCGA golf championships on the men’s side.

(Back to Table of Contents)

Melanie was already at their resort room
when Rebecca returned to let her know the Board’s decision. Melanie
was sitting in the exact same seat and position she was when
Rebecca woke up that morning. She was dressed in the same way and
had that same strange look on her face that Rebecca could not
read.

“Ok girl. You’re in, “Rebecca announced.
“You caused quite a stir with the coaches, but in the final
analysis Coach said it went just as you predicted.”